


I know I believe it, and so do my bones

by CourtneyCourtney



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Episode Tag, F/M, First Dates, Male-Female Friendship, Puppy Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 00:30:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21401185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourtneyCourtney/pseuds/CourtneyCourtney
Summary: It's not a date; it's a two-person cast-away party.(or, Louise and Rudy get frozen yogurt post-"The Hawkening: Look Who's Hawking Now." That's it. That's the fic.)
Relationships: Louise Belcher & Rudolph "Regular Sized Rudy" Steiblitz, Louise Belcher/Rudolph "Regular Sized Rudy" Steiblitz
Comments: 22
Kudos: 92





	I know I believe it, and so do my bones

**Author's Note:**

> **Summary**: It's not a date!!!  
**Tags Directly Above the Summary**: "First Date"
> 
> Title from Hellogoodbye's "Betrayed By Bones," which has been my OTP song for Rudy/Louise for years (especially the _Would It Kill You?_ version) and is finally applicable in a literal way. Seriously, go listen to it. It's delightful.

Louise is grounded. Louise is super, perma-, mega-grounded, in fact. She's also cut off from her allowance for the next six weeks. It’s part of the reason she tells Rudy he’s paying for their yogurt even though it’s his party -- she literally cannot.

It's also part of their dance, though. Louise can't be too soft on him, much as she wants to rub his fuzzy head. She knows Rudy wouldn't stop her, but that isn’t who she is. She isn’t weak, and she isn’t cute. She knows she’d do it all wrong, not be as nice about it as Chloe Barbash (and isn’t _that _a sentence Louise never wants to think ever again).

Still, for all that she can't stack up to Chloe in the sickly-sweetness department, it didn't escape Louise's notice that the spot Rudy saved for her to sign his cast was right on top of his arm, right above Chloe's huge "GET BETTER!" It would be stupid to read too much into that, but Rudy said over and over again that he was saving it for her. Whether he actually thought about it like that or not, Rudy wanted to put Louise above Chloe in his life.

Louise loves it. It makes her feel almost as important as a Nobel-prize-winning movie hostess. Okay, not really. Signing Rudy's cast is actually very lame in comparison to a _Hawk & Chick_ screening, but it makes her stomach do funny flips. It's a different kind of happiness, something quieter, something fuzzy in the pit of her belly.

Rudy is also putting Louise first by choosing to go for frozen yogurt with her and her alone. Not with Gene and Tina, not with any of the older kids that wanted the party in the first place. Just her and Rudy hitting the town. Just as friends though. It's not, like, a date or anything. Even if the boy is paying, which Louise knows is part of what makes it a real date. Rudy's only paying because Louise is making him, though. It isn't how the older kids do it when they go on dates. There won't be any kissing, or any hand-holding, although Louise might poke at his shriveled arm some more. But it isn't a date. It's a party. A two-person cast-away party.

All is quiet when they arrive at Fro-Yo-Momma. They have the store to themselves, and Louise thinks she and Rudy exercise a lot of restraint in not being as obnoxious as possible to annoy the bored cashier. The lady behind the register doesn't even say anything when Louise bounces two gummy bears off Rudy's head and he catches a third one in his mouth. Louise limits herself to a small cup, mindful of her toppings despite eating on someone else’s dime, and avoids touching anything Rudy’s allergic to.

Rudy, true to his word, is piling on the toppings, gummy worms and marshmallows aplenty in his cup. He turns to Louise with a smile. It’s brighter than she’s seen it in the past few months; the broken arm didn’t crush his spirit by any means, but he’s been a little subdued since getting his cast, taking it easier than he probably wanted to. In the face of such warmth, Louise feels a bit wiggly all over, like when she jumps off a swing and lands on her feet, but her legs absorb all the impact.

Rudy frowns slightly, ruining the moment. “Wait, so why am I paying again?”

Despite his mild protest, he’s moving toward the checkout. Louise follows.

“Let’s just say I’ve learned a valuable lesson about money these past few days,” she replies.

“Uh-huh,” says Rudy. He switches his cup of yogurt to his right hand to search his pockets with his left. Louise sees the muscles in his right forearm jolt before his fingers loosen their grip.

“Watch it!” Louise catches his cup of yogurt before it can fall too far out of Rudy’s weakened grip.

“Oh, whoops,” says Rudy. He finally pulls a wad of cash free from his shorts. A foul scent fills the air, and both Louise and lady working wrinkle their noses.

"Rudy, _sick_," Louise says, fighting the urge to pull her collar over her face. "Were you keeping that in your cast?"

"Yeah," Rudy replies. "It was really convenient! Keeping everything handy."

The cashier sighs, looking back down at her phone. “You know what? Just take your yogurts. I don’t want to touch whatever that is, it’s not worth it.”

“Sweet,” says Louise, heading past Rudy to walk outside. “I guess I do keep you around for a reason.”

It’s a nice day, and they both seem to be putting off going home, so Louise and Rudy grab a table out on the sidewalk.

"So, question," Louise starts, kicking her legs since the chairs are too tall here for her to touch the ground.

"Right," Rudy replies.

"No, you're supposed to say 'sure' or 'shoot' or something," says Louise.

"Oh, right," says Rudy. He's really into his fro-yo, Louise notes, saving that information for later.

"Okay," Louise continues since he isn't playing along. "So, why did your dad buy you a bunk bed if you're an only child?"

Rudy gestures widely, probably a shrug of some kind. "I'unno," he responds around a mouthful of fro-yo. He swallows. "I guess he wants me to have friends over more often? Or more friends in general." He stabs into his yogurt again. "There's an element of buying my affections in there somewhere that I'm not ready to look at. Maybe I'm supposed to pay it forward and use my new stuff to make my peers like me."

Louise has the squash the purely selfish voice that nearly volunteers to test out the trampoline Rudy mentioned earlier. She wouldn't mind a turn on the top bunk of that bed, either; that's high class, literally. "I think if anything your cast proved that people like you a lot without your stuff, though," she says instead. "I mean, everyone was going ga-ga over that thing, and it was a hunk of plaster that smelled like old cheese."

"You're forgetting that it glowed in the dark," Rudy replies, pointing his spoon at her. "That's important."

"It was fine," says Louise, meaning _it was super cool and I wish I'd looked at it more instead of being jealous of it_. "I like you better without it. I mean, I get to do this now." She grabs his right arm, making Rudy jump. "Oh, sorry."

"No, no," says Rudy. "You just startled me." He moves in his seat so his arm is across the table. "Here. Okay, now you can feel it."

Louise puts her left hand over his forearm and sticks her tongue out. "_Bleugh_, it’s like a raisin!"

Rudy laughs. "Yeah."

Louise squeezes him again. "This is your future. This is your arm as a withered old man, sent back in time to stop you from whatever crimes you're about to commit in the next twenty years."

"I think they sent the wrong arm then," Rudy replies, looking at his left hand.

"Well it's not an exact science," says Louise.

"What, body-part specific time travel?" Rudy asks.

"Yeah," Louise replies. "They're probably still working on getting all the bugs out."

"They have to be ready, though," Rudy says, nodding solemnly. "For _Arm_-aggedon."

Louise pinches his elbow.

"_Hey_!" Rudy shrieks.

Louise turns her attention to her own yogurt, which is fine. A lot fruitier than she realized, and the chocolate chips aren't really mixing with the other flavors well. Alas.

"Hey," Rudy says again, more normal this time. "So speaking of withered old men, what happened with Koji and the rest of the movie from the movie showing the other night?"

"_Mmmph_!" Louise slaps her hand down on the table. Of course he'd ask her the important questions right when she put a bunch of fro-yo in her mouth.

"It's okay, take your time," Rudy replies.

Louise has been dying to tell him what happened over the weekend. Of course Rudy has seen all the _Hawk and Chick_ movies Louise could show him. They're the greatest movies of all time, and of course she had to share them with Rudy. They've watched four or five of them multiple times because they're just so good. Maybe Rudy isn't as gung-ho about them as Louise, but he would have told her by now if he secretly hated them, right? Of course she's right. He loves them. He showed up for her movie screening in spite of a bunch of cooler kids offering to throw him is own party. He called Kojima a badass in the VIP booth. Of course Rudy is a super fan. He's cool like that.

"Okay, buckle up, because it's a wild time," Louise tells him.

Rudy frowns. Louise has a split-second to worry before he glances down at his empty cup and she figures out he isn't upset with the idea of listening to her ramble on about her weekend.

"I think I might need more yogurt if we're gonna be here longer," Rudy says.

"Sure, sure," Louise replies. "Knock yourself out, big spender."

Rudy wiggles his chair back, which takes some effort. "Do you want any more?" he asks as he stands.

Louise is gripped with the disgusting urge to actually say, "No thank you," to pretend her concoction isn't gross and that she isn't just swirling it around at this point. It passes though.

"I most certainly do, my Rude - oh." Louise freezes, her face turning as pink as her hat. "Oh, no, I didn't mean... I mean, I was going for, like, 'Rudester,' and 'my dude' at the same time. I didn't mean you're, like, _my_ Rudy, I just - "

Rudy laughs. "It's okay, Louise. I got what you were going for."

Louise smiles, but her face still feels funny. She's pretty sure he doesn't know what she meant; she hopes he doesn't know anyway. Their friendship is fine exactly way it is already. It's perfect. As long as she can call Rudy her best friend, then she can call him whatever, and it's not embarrassing to say out loud, especially on a not-date. It's just two friends having a two-friend party. With occasional weird nicknames and verbal slips. Which is fine. Totally fine.

"Hey," Rudy says, interrupting her thoughts. "What do you think would happen if you sneezed on the toppings inside? Do you think you get free toppings, or do you think you get banned?"

"I think you get banned," Louise replies, following him back inside, "but we can definitely see what happens."


End file.
